Sylvia's Journal

Right outside our dorm is a giant globe, referred to as the Babson Globe. It is several stories high. Our dorm is called Coleman Map and I am beginning to understand the map thing. The Coleman map was constructed in the 1920s and was the largest relief map in the country, 45 by 65 feet with the map’s curvature corresponding exactly to the earth’s curvature. It was created from 1216 blocks, each representing 1 degree latitude and 1 degree longitude, fitted together meticulously.

A picture on one of the marker at the base of the globe shows long rows of people sitting at high desks doing this painstaking work. From a balcony above, at the time, you could see the same as an astronaut would see at 700 miles above the earth. Remember, this was 1926. The rocket’s eye view allowed people to understand how geography shaped transportation routes and the growth of cities and regions. The map became an important tool for primary school teachers who took their classes to see it. Currently the map is in pieces in a basement of Babson and no longer visible to the public. The giant globe is not quite as useful because you can’t see the whole landscape; it is also disappointing because it no longer rotates as it used to in the 50s when it was considered a ‘tourist attraction and media wonder.’ Now it just hangs there with Africa always looking the same way. I also has become rather shabby; the North Pole is covered with tree pollen and bird poop. The only educational thing about it now is that is shows abundantly clear how the earth needs to be kept clean or else. Other than that it is an eye sore.

We conducted our board meetings with relative discipline, partially because we have a very disciplined president and partially because we would like to complete our business in two days rather than three. That would allow me to go for a row on the Charles before heading back home to pick up Axel for the start of the conference. He will be my room mate. I have re-arranged our dorm room to make it look more like a master bedroom. It does take some imagination but that is what this conference is all about.

At the end of the day we met with the students and faculty participating in the annual pre-conference Doctoral Institute; an interesting group of people including some great and well known organization, leadership and management gurus from the abundant local pool of such people whose material I use in my own teaching practice or who are part of this society.

We ended our day in a local Thai restaurant; a sister restaurant to the one near the old MSH office in Newton Corner. The menu had not changed in 10 years and brought back many memories of both happy and sad times at MSH. The manager pulled out all the stops to make us order way more food than we could possibly consume. I scooped all the leftovers in Chinese take out containers, filling two bags with enough for several complete Thai meals that I will deliver to the girls on Wednesday. Everything is temporarily parked in a dorm fridge till then.